Scene #5947: TPT: A Shadow of a Doubt

Owner	Pose
Flamel Parsons	Parsons has invited the others here, those of the Concord or who visited Maslow Peak or who otherwise just seem capable or trustworthy, for a simple task. The other Psychonauts have much recommended that he get at least a mental check-up after finding out the secrets about himself, and so that's the plan that he's told the others. The spy-jet is still being repaired at the base of Maslow Peak, but the little hangar-like space where its blasted parts are being put together isn't a bad space for the meeting. The spy-fiction aesthetic of the large chamber is matched by its furnishings, which range from retro-sci-fi to pure googie. Parsons himself sits among many chairs around something like a coffee table, flicking what appears to be a... Tiny door around his fingers, as if he were doing coin tricks. He looks a bit miserable, bloodshot eyes hiding behind sunglasses. He hasn't slept in a while. Does he need to, now that he knows he's artificial? Maybe this is just because of him being fussy about all this business. Once people arrive, he gives his explanation. "I can't project into my own mind -- not deep enough to check up as much as I'm told I ought to, I mean. So I need you to check in on any psychohazardous activity." He knows at least a few of those present will be unfamiliar with the process, so he gives a quick summary. "Your minds will be astrally projected out of your bodies, which should bring along any resources of coherent imaginary figments of them you need. But you're going deep enough that I can't pull you out if things get dangerous, you don't get any extra lives about this." "I'm not gonna tell you not to touch anything. If you see something that looks out of place, wrong, dangerous, that sort of thing, feel free to try stopping it. Just remember that whatever you see in there, my identity is the world -- so try not to let it get blown up." He slips the door onto his head, pressing it into place with a noise like it found a slot on his forehead. It looks like the entrance to a secret ominous spy facility, with a fancy ominous eye and pyramid symbolism and everything. "Get any questions out of the way now, I can tell you what you need on the way in." He's a fair bit less chipper than before, when it comes to this topic, at least.
Orchid	Can Orchid be astrally projected? Well, they did manage to make those cold copy things, robots with psychic abilities, and according to some magical experts she does have a strong spirit. So let's say... probably. Anyway, she's here to help out in part because of her own perspective as an artificial creature, constructed for a purpose and for a function. "So. Metaphorical reality. The you of you is the terrain, call out and stop things that look like they don't belong, and we may face real risks," the reploid says. "Do you have any issues with arachnophobia? Or should I keep them from fanning out over your mindscape?
Theurgus	Theurgus has been busy lately, what with the semi-recent attack on her Drive, the aftermath of having one of the perpetrators in her home, and the like, as well as the more mundane attacks by unaligned Viruses on the outer parts of her domain. The Mad Magician strides into the area, throwing her arms wide when she sees her comrade in conspiracies. "It has been far too long, Ser Parsons!" the chipper tone fades when she sees just how messed up the Psychonaut seems to be. "The Organization shall pay for whatever they've done to you, that much I promoise." she adds more gravely, then listens to the explanation. "Focus on the obviously wrong, and do not destroy the terrain... Understood." The DCC looks around at the others, allowing them to ask questions instead of butting in herself, lest she drag this out far longer than it should be.
August Kohler	August can, reluctantly, take a break from both his scouting and his secret kung-fu training to help Flamel Parsons, who he's starting to see as a very close ally over everything he's helped with. So, standing there in a t-shirt, jacket, and jeans, with a knife and a pistol at his side, August has a question. "What do you mean by 'should bring along any resources of coherent imaginiry figments'? Will I still be able to fight in there if I just believe in it or something?" And then, on the other part... "Alright. I'll be gentle and not set too many fires in there." A little bit of dry humor from the firebrand, August smiling as much as he can. He's gotten some sleep...but it's not a good smile. He's very obviously worried.
Flamel Parsons	"I meant people like Orchid shouldn't be lacking their drones or anything. I don't know much about your psychic phenomena, I can't say for sure what'll happen with you, August." Parsons says, shrugging sheepishly. "Sorry. As for arachnophobia, Orchid, I'm only really scared of spiders if they're also clowns. Spiders, fine. Clowns, also fine. Spider clowns, awful. Imagine it." He gives time to imagine it. Then he emphasizes it: "Imagine their pranks. Imagine their balloon animals." What a nightmare. Is this a joke? He looks just as miserable as before. Maybe it's real. Don't imagine spider clowns if you don't want to risk it.
Priscilla	Priscilla is actually familiar with this particular kind of psychonaut shenanigan. Interested in her new (at the time) Concord member's strange gimmick and stranger organization of origin, she had made certain to personally oversee a previous operation dealing with a roaming psychohazard of a more collective origin. She had even rode this very spy jet, which makes her look to its wreckage with some level of consternation, spending a lot of time staring and deciding how to feel about what Parsons had managed to do to it in this whole mountain mess, and especially given that they had come away with further problems rather than concrete gains. She interrupts that silent, judgemental vigil to cast an even more critical glance to August showing up, stopping short of naked hostility, but appearing vaguely displeased all the same, complete with the slightly contracted pupil slits and restless tail of an agitated cat. By all records that have metaphorically and physically passed over her desk however, August had done nothing but help Parsons during this operation, and Parsons had actually taken a personal interest in the boy as a pet project, and so she keeps it in her equally metaphorical pants for the time being. She isn't casual about rejoining the group, stepping up to Flamel in a clearly ready fashion. "Seeing thee this way is wearing upon me, Sir Parsons. Let us be underway swiftly. I doubteth thou particularly enjoy sitting around as such either."
Orchid	"Note to self," Orchid says, "Build some spider-clown drones for psychological warfare." She... may be joking, or she may be serious. She looks around the others gathered. August she knows, Theurgus she's helped before. Priscilla she hasn't met before, but she trusts Flamel's judgement in who he would let mess around in his head. "I think I'm ready."
Flamel Parsons	"Yeah. I don't know if this goes away. We don't really have any records about it. I'm hoping you can find some way of making it stop." He replies to Priscilla. Then he taps the door on his forehead, letting it gently pop open to reveal pure white light inside. "Alright then. Prepare your minds." He says in that ominous tone, as his eyes begin to glow an unearthly white. Everyone present begins to feel a supernatural tug, as if a puppet-string was pulling them away and forward. Unless they strongly resist, they'll soon find themselves tugged, almost "slipping" out of their physical bodies like being rescued from quicksand. Phantasmal versions of the bodies of all those present begin to swirl out of the real ones. Soon enough, the group will find themselves whirling into the door, which slams shut ominously, with a sound and an intensity far more than its tiny size should allow. And they're within his mind. The first thing they'll notice when they enter is how little the aesthetic has changed. They've stepped right through one door in a big spy-fiction area and right into another. They're in an area now clearly labeled: PARSONS ANOMALOUS CONTAINMENT INSTITUTE LIGHT CONTAINMENT - ACTIVE STUDY The area is all made up in thick, brushed steel, and the hallways already visibly twist in mind-bending ways. Some are irrationally tall, while others are weirdly squat. Weird sciency-looking instruments protrude from walls and ceilings at strange angles. Strange emergency equipment is available every few dozen steps -- "BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF ALIEN MIND CONTROL", for example, or "PULL LEVER IN EVENT OF HOLLOW EARTH UPRISING" -- and none of it is ever the same no matter how far one walks. There's readily available signage as well, directing readers to "ARCHIVES AND SYSTEMS", "HEAVY CONTAINMENT - ACTIVE DESTRUCTION", and "LIGHT CONTAINMENT TEST CHAMBERS". The passage to the Heavy Containment area seems in a bad way at the moment. At this distance, those present can already see that several layers of unusual material are blocking it up, not to mention what looks like a blast door with a big, rotating red alarm above it, clearly marking something bad going on in there.
Theurgus	Theurgus feels the tugging, not resisting the effect, though it is seemingly entirely alien to her normal worldview. Her physical body locks into place as the driving force emerges. A strange, blue-gold 'core' throbs at the center of her, for lack of a better term, soul but that's gone quickly into the door and she emerges into the brainscape. Blue eyes track quickly around, taking in the scene before locking onto the heavily damaged corridor and all that strange material. "It seems we know the direction to go in immediately." she remarks to the others, summoning her staff from Inventory and proceeding nonchalantly over. She reaches out with that staff and pokes at the material. That's what you do with unknown substances, right? Poke them with a stick?
Flamel Parsons	Theurgus prods at the weird blast-door cover with her staff, and it provokes a reaction! It looks like there's a multitude of layers, in fact. A TOUGH organic layer seems to react with hostile biomass generation, armoring up. An INCOMPREHENSIBLE layer reacts with extensive mechanical reconfiguration, churning gears to bulk up protection. An ENCHANTED layer reacts with a churning array of elemental magics, especially negatively towards Theurgus' staff. And a CARBON layer forms a dense array of what looks like dry wood formed in the shape of human bone. The BLAST DOOR behind it presses down more firmly, as if trying to throttle and choke the escaping material.
Orchid	Well that was a trip. No literally, a head trip as Orchid is pulled out of herself. She resists the urge to make toilet noises as they are swept into Parson's mind. It takes her a minute to regain her balance, but Orchid is soon on her feet, looking around. "Paciaas," she says, looking up at the signs. "No, not a good acronym." She looks over her shoulder at Theurgus's actions. "Somehow I don't know if the direct approach will work," she comments. "I'm checking out the archives." And so said, she heads that way, pulling out a spider onto her shoulder to help look around. She knows what Flamel said about not being particularly afraid of spiders, but Orchid's normal mode of operation winds up leaving them behind, and she doesn't want to leave any debris of her own in this mind.
August Kohler	August sighs at Flamel, but nods. Priscilla meanwhile gets a glance back as she casts hers at him, a sort of 'what are YOU looking at?' type. Her vague displeasure causes him to sigh, but when it's time to enter...well, he's all prepared. He's done it before. Once inside, August glances between the three doors, and considers what he'll do. If he had his Perosna, he'd try to tear down heavy containment...but try as he might to summon it, he just plain can't, not even in a mindscape. So instead, he moves to break off from the group if he can, the redhead heading down towards Light Containment to see what's inside there and if there's anything he can help with. He's quiet while doing it, though, and doesn't alert anyone he's splitting off. He'll be fine.
Flamel Parsons	Heading over to the archives and systems seems to work well. No major obstructions, and Orchid can get in there pretty easily. It's all reel-to-reel computers and weirdly massive cathode-ray screens in there once she slips through a thick steel automatic door, surely plenty of data to work with. This is where a lot of Parsons' memory can be found. There's also controls for various airlocks and blast doors in here, the systems part of things. It's on a big light-up switchboard. The HEAVY CONTAINMENT blast door control has a little red light next to a label that says "BREACH CUTOFF - CANNOT OPEN". All the big cathode ray screens labeled with Heavy Containment are black, but there ought to be plenty of records. Orchid is free to peruse and pursue various times or search terms for the data in here, the many stacks of reels and the many complicated spy-fiction interfaces. She can also remotely handle the doors for the other people here!
Priscilla	It's the second time Priscilla has done this, and so the sensation is not as bewilderingly strange and disorienting as before, but the floating trip into the light and through the tiny-yet-booming door is just as surreal as ever, making her quietly wonder just as before 'why a door' as she touches down. She does a double check over herself upon landing, turning over her hands and glancing down at her back to make sure everything is accounted for, and takes on a faint expression of chagrin to find herself dressed in thick white and grey furs instead of what she'd come wearing. That self-conception may be very difficult to shake. Reaching up to her brow, her fingertips encounter the silver titanite woven circlet, and flat black gem, which she also hadn't been wearing, but from a completely different time period. 'Mind nonsense', is what she writes it off as. "Well then. He didst sayeth to look for that which seems out of place." says Priscilla, walking up to the heavy containment obstruction, her eyes slowly tracking up its deceptive height. "Though, it is somewhat of a question why such wouldst taketh the form of heavy lockdown, whereas Sir Parsons' current crisis of faith stems from certain parts of his history letting slip and becoming obvious. I am not entirely certain what form of denial this couldst representeth." Theurgus pokes at it with a stick. Priscilla stands behind her because this is what she pays Theurgus to do. Upon seeing it react, the crossbreed closely watches its behaviour, and then breezes past the mad magician. At some point, the outline of a very large scythe has appeared in her hand, but it is a murky, pitch black, indistinct thing, shifting and blurring at the edges as if bleeding ink and suspended in water. Stepping up to the door, she stands a couple of arm's reaches back, sizes up a central line, and then brings the weapon-representation whirling around with a screech of splitting air, leaving contrails of frosty wind behind an upwards diagonal slash of considerable length. It's nominally as effective as a sharp object should be against the INCOMPREHENSIBLE and CARBON layers, but agains the ORGANIC and ENCHANTED layers, it should cause all the explosively lethal bleeding and necrosis, as well as coldly snuffing out magic, as usual. She expects it'll be more of a project to get through the other two layers, and so stops to consider, but then her eyes dart sideways as August meanders off, and it's clear just from her narrowed stare and darkened expression that she doesn't care to leave him alone in here. "Light Containment was said to be active at the start, I wouldst supposeth." she all but mutters to herself. Turning back, she waves Theurgus on. "I shalt leaveth thee to handle matters momentarily. I shalt returneth soon." she says, before disappearing into thin air, and starting to tail August.
Flamel Parsons	August (and his Priscilla tail) head into the LIGHT CONTAINMENT TEST AREAS, which leads immediately into the TEST OBSERVATION DECK, which is sort of like a combination of a theater and bleachers. From here he gets to see something fascinating: The Test Chambers. In one of them, something that looks like his Persona can be found! The Tin Soldier is in there, in a big white chamber that's filled with charred ash! Every half a minute or so, a set of wood-looking dummies is sent into the room, and that Persona burns them swiftly and eagerly with a gush of fire from its leg. It doesn't seem... Quite accurate. Its proportions are wrong, its shape a little more menacing and a little less combat-oriented. There's a smaller area where a similarly lightly-distorted mental image of August can be seen, zoning out when the Tin Soldier goes into action. It's labeled with ACI-407. Another features... Nothing? The area just looks like a big snowy white chamber with nothing in it. Dummies are projected into it every so often, covered in thick, heavy armor. And if August watches closely, a flickering, tall white shape in a long, regal outfit can be barely seen just before the dummy inside the armor explodes inside it in a rush of splinters. In a smaller sub-chamber, a pedestal holds up a big, jagged black scythe, which drones constantly scan and prod at. It's labeled with ACI-005. Another chamber contains no person, but what looks like an incredibly complicated staff. A heavy apparatus grips it at the base, while an array of at least a dozen manipulator arms pokes and prods at it every few seconds, causing it to emit gushes of elemental energy. Occasionally dummies are sent into this chamber, and burned, or frozen, or encased in rock. Sometimes, other magical-looking things are sent in, like a crystal ball that's struck with magic and unfolds into a complicated crystal tree. It's labeled ACI-778. The last is a swarm of strange mechanical spiders, wandering around the room. Many of them stare strangely, unnervingly at what few dummies are sent in. What draws their reaction is when complex mechanical devices are sent in, which they begin mercilessly picking apart, chattering excitedly among each other until it's nothing but parts and pieces. Even an entire high-security safe winds up succumbing to this fate. This swarm is labeled ACI-512. There's access doors to get into each one, though Orchid will need to get them open remotely.
Orchid	Well, the idea was to try and find the controls for the heavy containment doors. Whatever issues Flamel has, they're in containment, not in the memories he can easily access. That said, Orchid does at least go over the titles of some of the memories. On finding the control that isn't working for the big blast door... Well, Orchid opens up the panel, and starts following wires from the lever and from the light. "Let's see if the saboteur was a fool..."
Theurgus	Theurgus steps back as the Enchanted barrier starts to react violently to the Magicks in her staff. Looking back at the others, and seeing them all moving, starts to follow, before Priscilla steps up and slashes through the barriers. She jumps a little, bringing her staff around defensively as an interlocked screen of blue hexagons forms between her and the doorway. Then Priscilla starts stalking off after August, and the Mad Magician just kind of stands there a bit dumbstruck. She shakes it off quickly enough, then goes back to checking over the barrier layers, leaning in a little bit more closely than might be prudent.
Orchid	Orchid also pulls a lever for door ACI-407, hopefully that will open the door containing the Tin Soldier, or at least Flamel's understanding of the Tin Soldier.
Flamel Parsons	The TOUGH layer instantly experiences a massive, roiling gush of damage that ripples through its entire form. The ENCHANTED layer also disorganizes and blasts apart chaotically. Just as Priscilla had hoped! But soon, the complexity of the situation rears its ugly head. The INCOMPREHENSIBLE layer rotates fresh chunks of organic material in, and the CARBON layer sprouts new spellcircles on strange flowers. Her abilities are quite effective, but it might be that it needs to be in tandem with other breaching efforts; while Priscilla's abilities may suffice with more intense effort, there's surely an easier way, if she doesn't want to strain to amp up her Lifehunt output in a longer-term sense to resolve this barrier to Heavy Containment.
August Kohler	As August heads in, he's not aware he's being followed, and instead focuses on a thought that comes into his mind as he scans over the testing chambers. He radios Orchid to open a door, and then once it's open, moves inward. He moves over to the Tin Soldier to touch it, or try and drag it. His goal is simple. While he can't summon or manipulate his Persona because he currently doesn't have one, he's hoping that Flamel's rendition of it will recognize August as its master and join him temporarily while they're exploring in Flamel's mind. If pulling it out or grabbing it does in fact form a connection, he'll flex its fingers for a bit and move to try and get a feeling of it, before looking to see if any of the other test chambers (or the one he just stole from) are having issues.
Flamel Parsons	It looks like the breach came from within. Based on the trajectory of burned-out fuses on sensor systems, ancient cold-war-era wiring patterns, and , whatever emerged from Heavy Containment escaped from the inside, rather than something on the outside opening it up. Either way, though, it looks like she can find the spot where the light's NOT gate lines up with the door-opening-system's AND gate and bypass it with some wiring work. But WARNING, that might not be a good idea while the weird material is trying to escape! If the blast door isn't choking the material seal, then it'll likely flood out. She can be well ready to open it when it's time though.
Flamel Parsons	Memories in here are a mixed jumble. Some extensive examination of the titles indicates that the names of other people have been scratched out of the reel labels and replaced with Flamel Parsons'. Some of them are newer, and have only his, though. Such as "MASLOW PEAK DISCOVERY"; if examined, it shows a recording of various scientists bringing in a large containment pod into a Heavy Containment test chamber, and opening it, whereupon a disturbing flood of purple stone-like human bones comes pouring out over the rim, eventually damaging the camera. Looks like the Maslow Peak incident is what caused the Heavy Containment breach!
Flamel Parsons	The other layers are impossible for Theurgus to deal with, but checking the weird enchantment barrier layer more extensively lets her fairly easily find that it has an extensive series of magical subsystems designed to restore the integrity of the other materials. Presumably its a mirror of their ability to restore it, like how the tree-like layer restored the magical layer. All four need to be resolved in a sustained, long-term sense, it seems?
Theurgus	Theurgus intensely investigates the magical layer, checking the spell seals against those she has on file. None of them exactly match, but crossreferencing several and layering them over each other bring her to the conclusion that this, and perhaps all the layers, are interconnected and must be brought down all together at the same time, or they'll just keep regenerating. She taps her chin, then nods, planting her staff on the ground and leaning on it as she relates her findings to the others over broadband.
Flamel Parsons	August finds that the thick steel door opens, just a short while after he asks Orchid. He can make his way down from Observation to Testing, and into the test chamber! Once he's in there and grabbing the Tin Soldier -- who doesn't fire at him -- he can feel a familiar, though rather different sensation. It's like having his Persona, but it's... Parsons-flavored. It's not real, and he won't keep it on his way out, but stealing the mental image of his own Persona in Parsons' mind seems to be an entirely workable solution. Or it would be, if the mental image of August didn't shoot up out of his chair. "Hey!" He calls out. "I need that!" August's control over his own Tin Soldier stays, but the other August has no hesitation in taking a rather simultaneous control; he makes the Tin Soldier take a heavy swing against itself, punching itself in the jaw and trying to make it stumble back into the center of the room. Getting the Tin Soldier out of here will mean finding some way to stop Mental-August from sabotaging it! He visibly reels from the impact, about as much as August-of-reality tended to feel the impact against the Tin Soldier before.
Priscilla	Upon entering the light containment area, Priscilla freezes in her tracks at the sight of the second test chamber. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the various chambers are meant to represent, and for a second she thinks it might have caught on her visiting here as well as August, and immediately blow her cover. She only needs to look for a little more to see that Theurgus and what is probably Orchid are accounted for here as well, meaning it's just analyzing all of them. Analyzing. Priscilla has to wonder about that. There's not a lot of reason for Flamel to be contemplating their combat abilities at the moment, but plenty reason to have the four of them on his mind, and it could easily be said that these are rather iconic representations. The fact that drones are constantly poking at them, and cameras recording them, certainly lends themselves to the idea of it being some kind of contemplation. So why is it 'containment'? It takes her a couple of seconds, but she stops pretty much immediately in her tracks, and backs out of the room with her finger on the radio bead. "All four of thee. I wouldst hath thee convene at once. I believeth all of us art needed at the same time to progress past this central barrier." She comes back just in time to see all the layers restoring every other layer, further lending credence to her hypothesis. "Sir Parsons hath constructed four barriers, related in quite specific fashion. I believeth it is only sensible for us to tackle each one in order. Mineself for its armoured and living exterior. Lady Orchid, apparently, for its mechanical apparatus. Lady Theurgus and her expertise of magic. Sir Kohler for his love of fire."
August Kohler	Oh, dear. As the other August stands up and shouts at him, and then uses his own control to have the Tin Soldier punch itself, August recoils and grabs his jaw from the pain. Looks like there's feedback even with this copy. Instead of punch back, though, August comes up with a plan - diplomacy with the person he knows best. "Alright, listen here, August. Parsons is in trouble and we need to set things on fire to solve the problem. Either give me the damn Persona or come out here yourself and help us out. I'd prefer the first, and I'm absolutely willing to set you on fire if you won't do either." However, August is terrible at convincing himself to do things sanely, and therefore his diplomacy kind of sucks. Hopefully he can atleast maybe stun the other August long enough to run off with the Persona? While he's waiting, though, he's continuing to try and push the Persona back to his side mentally.
Orchid	Orchid is still in the archives room, now watching the memory with the purple bones. She lifts a hand to her ear, using broadband to reply to Priscilla. "That sounds right. At the very least, all four of us acting at once will make sure we're all here and ready for whatever it is behind that door." As for what Orchid might contribute to holding that back? Well, she might try out a new idea on this metaphorical plane.
Flamel Parsons	Does August know himself? Arguable. After Maslow Peak, much more so, though. Does August know Parsons knowing August? Grammaticians are split on the matter. But for mental-August's part, it looks like it's mostly working. He screws up his face in a frustrated, attached way, and declares, "Fine, but I'm keeping my link!" Which means that he'll have to actively sustain this ongoing conversation with the mental August. And also that mental August will be able to half-breach Light Containment. It might occur to the real August that, after dealing with Shadow August, Tongue-of-Adam August, Anima-August, and Parsons-August, that there are currently no less than four August Kohlers running around the collective psychic space. Psychonautry is good.
August Kohler	August sighs in relief with a light smile as the Parsons-August agrees to a compromise, nodding. And then, August moves to head back out of Light Containment, heading towards the doors. He keeps talking as he does so, hoping it'll sustain the conversation enough. "Thank you very much. Honestly, I need Parsons' help, with the Shadow problem and all. The more fit combatants we have the better, and having him on our side with his knowledge of psychology is important. He's good at what he does." Once August reaches the door, though, he actually feels bad about what he just said, and moving to control the Tin Soldier to raise its gun and aim it at the lock on the door, assuming it's the carbon one they need to burn, but waiting for the signal. "No, that's not it. He's helped me out a lot, and besides needing his assistance, he's been a good friend. Even if he's cataloguing you. That's...kind of weird."
Theurgus	Theurgus picks up her staff, giving it a twirl before leveling the crystal at the head down at the ENCHANTED barrier segment. The marble cycles through all the elemental colours before turning an irridsecent hue, seeming to incorporate all of them at once. "I am ready to destroy the magicked seal when everyone else is prepared." she informs, a spell circle appearing under her feet, as a near maniacal chuckle bubbles up in her throat. Her free hand lifts, framing her left eye with parted fingers. "My name is Theurgus, and whether you are a simple obstacle, or some foul intellect sent to thwart us, know that it is I who have defeated you! WAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Orchid	Orchid is ready for the efforts of the others, and once she knows the opening has begun, she hotwires Flamel's mind, inducing the blast door to quietly open. Less dramatic than some. Hmmm, a bunch of extra space in this pose. What to add, what to add? Oh! I know! Some tired humor referring to the shortness of the pose! That'll make good filler.
Priscilla	When August arrives back at the intersection, he will find that Priscilla is already there. Obviously! Clearly she'd never left! There is no sign that she had followed him and seen that entire embarrassing exchange! With all the troops assembled, there's only one thing for it though. Taking her stance before the door, the murky manifestation of some idea of a scythe forms in her hands, and this time she focuses all of her energy on the outermost layer, ripping into the TOUGH armour and spreading a shallow, but highly intense pulse of dark, 'liquid' presence through its fleshy internals, rupturing them as thoroughly as possible for the others to follow up on. If Orchid looks like she's hesitating or uncertain, Priscilla will be in no way uncomfortable just ordering her to use the spiders. She assumes she has spiders at least. She was talking about them earlier, and the weird test chamber had them. Creepy little things.
Flamel Parsons	The Parsons-August doesn't have quite enough personality depth to be debating extensively, and the co-operation goes well enough, though he remains frustratingly grating in the way he hitches each movement and motion in small ways. "You're working with Priscilla too!" He says, urgently. "What are you doing?! That's dangerous!" He'll need a bit of assuaging, certainly, but it's at least not a majorly difficult argument. In any case, the use of fire, magic, decoding, and lifehunt is certainly enough. It takes a bit more work and effort on each person's part, aside from August's, because they didn't use their respective artifacts from the testing chamber, certainly, but it does manage to eat through. Priscilla's Lifehunt devastates the TOUGH and ENCHANTED layer, August's fire devastates the CARBON and TOUGH layer, Theurgus' deft magical blasting devastates the ENCHANTED layer while working easily into weakpoints on the INCOMPREHENSIBLE layer, and Orchid's deconstructing tendencies let her easily take apart the INCOMPREHENSIBLE layer while also thoroughly deconstructing the interlocking bits of the CARBON layer. Under the effort, Priscilla's and Theurgus' plan comes to fruition and the combined efforts manage to clear out the flooding material, causing a hiss of pain and an abrupt retreat, letting the blast door slam shut. Orchid manages to get the blast doors to open after that. Further in, the awful flood has taken out everything but emergency lights. Walls are thicker, made of metal and concrete in combination. Doors are all blast doors, with heavy hydraulic locks. Cameras are broken, emergency lights flicker and sputter or are just phosphors. Most of the Heavy Containment chambers in the vast maze of underground doors are locked, but traces of the awful flooded material can be followed to the source. A new-looking room. The ACI number hasn't even finished being inscribed on it yet. The tendrils of odd material run out of it, keeping the door forced open. A pulsing purple light can be seen within, though: An awful, vile mass of bones, shifting like a lake, churning and projecting no form of human shape, but dozens of limbs, grasping and clenching. As soon as whatever this is realizes it's been approached, blasts of psychic energy start being fired up and down the wide hallways in all directions, filling them with bolts, beams, and continuous lasers, making it a hazard almost like a bullet hell pattern. A surge of arms races along the walls and tries to swipe and slash at the visitors. It's doing its best to make sure it doesn't get forced back into that chamber!
Theurgus	Theurgus fufufufu's softly, pulling the brim of her hat down over her eyes as the seal is broken. "Very well done, very well done indeed." she says, then steps through confidently into the hallway behind that blast door once it's open. That's about when the bullet hell starts up. She tchs softly, sweeping back and dodging around incoming bolts and blasts, using throw-away barriers to defend herself from those she can't evade, but she can't advance or attack unassisted.
Orchid	Bullet hell? HA! Bullet hells are only hell for people who A: don't have shields, and B: don't have a third person perspective. Orchid has both, what with her spiders for B, and her bracers creating energy shields for A. What's more, Orchid has her dash boots, she thinks she can move quickly enough, interposing herself between the blasts and... well, anything. This whole place IS Flamel Parsons, and Orchid is trying to absorb those hits against her sureness that she is here for a reason. That she was made for a purpose and a function. She wound up changing that function, but Orchid exists to protect people that can't protect themselves. And she's made peace with that.
August Kohler	As the Tin Soldier burns into the layers, August responds with frustration. "Only temporarily! We have the same goal right now, so it's an alliance of convenience. The alternative is either fighting her and making a big mess of things, or heading back and doing nothing, and the first one would only hurt Parsons. The direct route is to just accept the alliance for now." Once the barrier's down, it's time to pursue. The jerking of the Tin Soldier makes it not fun, but it's manageable. "Anima told us we need to be more open with others. Try and connect with them better. Think of this as a first real try of that." But then, there's the Doubt, and the psychic bullet hell coming forth, blasts throughout the flooded area. August's immediate reaction is to jump on the Tin Soldier's back and shout out to Parsons-August. "I need as much control as you'll allow me, or we and the others might die! I'm going to hit this thing full-force!" If Parsons-August lets him a little more control, the Tin Soldier moves to race forward, trying to duck and weave between blasts but taking a good amount of them, which burn into its hull and armor, as the gun-leg is raised. A burst of flame ignites from it, blasting outwards at the arms and tendrils to try and force pain and a retreat for the Doubt. "Take this, you bastard!" It feels good to have fire again. Too bad it's temporary, but when August has to fight his Shadow, he'll have something else up his sleeve.
Priscilla	As Priscilla had expected, the combined effort lowers the barrier readily enough. It makes her contemplate, however briefly, why it had been there in the first place. Something that blocks them out of finding the answers they were ostensibly here to seek, yet cobbled together from thinking about them individually, and ultimately set up so that they would be able to get through it anyways. There is only so much she can guess of Flamel's mindset by the symbolism, and it's not because of his apparently synthetic nature. She actually mouths aloud the ACI numbers reappearing again, and then failing to appear, with a "What precisely couldst such standeth for?" in only semi-rhetorical tones. Yet, when she finally lays eyes upon the blast doors held ajar -the gates wrenched open by the awful thoughts contained inside- and the contents beyond cancerously crawling into the rest of Flamel's mental space, suddenly, Priscilla has a certain feeling hit dangerously close to home in a way that makes her visibly wince at the sight of it, instantly intuiting meaning from the display. It is in fact so viscerally recognizable that she even misses the opportunity to correct August arguing with another August that his first option would largely hurt himself. Why it takes the form of glowing bones is beyond her, as she hadn't been there for Maslow Peak's secrets in-person, but it is obvious enough where the beating heart of this irregularity lies. Under assault by psychic skeletons (naturally), Priscilla disappears once more, but there's only so much that turning invisible can do here. The crawling lake of psychohazardous mass doesn't really have to do much 'aiming' in this situation, where they only have one hallway of approach, and Priscilla quickly finds herself slowed down and almost pushed back by the effort of ducking and skirting wild blasts of energy and blocking and deflecting flailing arms. Faint trails of white and black frost occasionally follow an invisible swipe that severs impromptu skeletal limbs, first at the base, and then further down the hall, wishing to see if cutting them off ahead 'kills' the ones behind like an amputation. If it has the desired effect, she'll start hacking away as is possible, beating back the infestation of doubt, and trimming it away down to the blast doors that they clearly, desperately, need shut, even if she has to get shot a few times to do it.
Flamel Parsons	Theurgus finds her advance stalled out! Under the barrage, disposable barriers hold her position but don't let her move forward! Soon her efforts to keep to the fore are stymied. But then it's Orchid's efforts that help her out! The blast of bolts lightens when she can ease her position into Orchid's "slipstream" of sorts! Orchid's savvy analysis tactics of scooping up as much of the oncoming fire as possible means that these territories of safe space get generated all throughout the dangerous sustained fire! Speaking of Orchid, while it's not possible to scoop up all those projectiles, it is quite possible to keep them from damaging any more structures. Protecting the other doors, remaining electronics, and other infrastructure will certainly keep Parsons' mind from suffering unknown damage; who knows what other awful psychological constructs are in containment down here! August can have a bit of relief for his Parsons-Tin-Soldier by slipping in there too, though the size of his Persona may make that a little less easy. He's the one who provides a huge burst of ranged DPS in the form of the waves of fire that surge down the halls. The Doubt flickers and shudders, before surging through a dozen more forms. The TOUGH layer, the INCOMPREHENSIBLE layer, the MAGIC layer, the CARBON layer, but even stranger ones, some engraved stone, some strange spytech, some tendrils of water -- it's a complete mess. The Doubt is trying to subvert the structure itself! Luckily, the type-agnostic damage of Lifehunt is crucially useful when it starts that up. Amputating long flows seems to work well enough; while the scattered Doubt that's released seems active, it doesn't have anything near the same intense glow and gleam, it's obviously going to be less harmful when disconnected from whatever awful core is in there. Parsons' own miserable Doubt is eventually slashed and burned to the core chamber. Here, if Orchid can still keep her shield up, Priscilla can continue tearing away the errant tendrils, and August can continue blasting waves of fire to force it back with heat and pressure, then Theurgus might have a shot at slamming a fist against the EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN button next to the chamber! And if she does, it'll snap shut, and settle this!
Orchid	At least Orchid's non-offensive approach is doing some good here. If the other things in here are half as bad as THIS thing... well. The Reploid is bouncing back and forth across the room like she's trying to evade one of those asshole attacks where the maverick sends out projectiles out in a spiral. Then she notices the button on the door. She's not in a good position to go over there herself, but she can put herself in a position so her shields can absorb the shots sent in that direction, while jumping over and under the bone limbs.
August Kohler	The better control of the Tin Soldier allows August to keep the fire pressure up. Bursts of flame and dozens of small fireballs are launched out, one after another, trying to hold the Doubt back. "Alright, me! Let's finish this like we always do...efficiently with a bit of flair." Mostly, he's still just talking to keep the connection up long enough to get one final strike... A very large fireball, not too large for the corridor, but larger than the rest. It's launched out as the Tin Soldier bursts forward, hoping to miss Theurgus and hit the thing hard enough to knock it inside the containment while the others do their part.
Theurgus	As Orchid takes the pressure off of her, and the others start making headway, Theurgus's analytical mind goes into overdrive. Containment area, blast doors, specialized equipment to keep these things locked down, there has to be an emergency system in place for the personnel to slam shut all the doors should something breach inner containment. She scans the walls, and finds the button, moving up behind the others and calling for them to keep the thing pushed back, hold it for a little bit longer. She dismisses her staff, and then slams her fist into that button, breaking through any emergency glass to do so.
Priscilla	Amidst the increasingly intense barrage of psychic blasts and swinging, skeletal claws, where soon enough, Priscilla has to press her way further forward by resolving to just take the least bad of the hits, creeping forward a few meters each time she spots an opportunity to suck up a glancing blow, she still somehow finds the time to say "As with all self-loathing doubt, it wouldst deny its own existence, and thus fight against ever being resolved." before finally just buckling down and blazing ahead towards the button. Barrier pop up into the way, and Priscilla crashes against them with a greater degree of her power, carefully to direct it away from what might be Parsons himself, but judiciously shooting fresh injections of murderous, bleeding energy into the psychic constructs, tearing them down one after the other. She closes in as far as she can towards the final blast doors, like trying to manually approach the output fan of a wind tunnel, starting to flag and tire from the exertion, but she gets herself between the breached containment (or perhaps better termed, introspection) room and Theurgus for her to slam the one potentially useful emergency button in this whole place.
Flamel Parsons	Heavy Containment is re-sealed. Lights flicker back on in the facility. Alarms cease their redness and their noises. And, for the most part, what was out of place is now back in place. Or, at the very least, it's as cleaned-up as it's going to get. Fortunately, this means the Doubt is sealed back up. Unfortunately, this means Mental-August takes this as the perfect time to send the Mental-Tin-Soldier off towards Light Containment, whether or not August is aboard -- so now there's definitely at least four other Augusts wandering around the mental plane, and who even knows what that's going to mean. He had the diplomacy to get the job done, but not to avoid winding up with yet another cognitive doppelganger that will doubtlessly not be a running plot point in some future awful event. Regardless, the recovering lights can easily light the way back to the way the group came in. Unless they have more they need to do, here, it's going to be best to take the path to egress; they've been down in this mind for a prety long while! It's probably best to make their way back to their bodies. And no, before you ask, there's not any chance of mixing up which body you end up in, however profoundly amusing a Freaky Friday flip between Priscilla and August might be. Everything's as resolved as it gets down here; Parsons will still need to resolve his doubt on his own, but at least now his Anomalous Containment Institute can do that in a way that's a little more under control.
Orchid	Victory fanfare, Orchid strikes a pose, and warps out of Flamel's mind. Ba-woop! Alas, she does not then go to the weapon get screen, instead waking up in her body.